Zander's

We contacted Brendon in early July 2023 with a request to visit the Zander's venue for our post-elopement reception that we were planning for January 2024. Within 24 hrs he had scheduled us for a private tour. He met us last minute on a Sunday morning and provided us with a tour and a free bottle of champagne. He said he would give us the "friends and family" discount and wrote up a quote and contract within days. We signed a contract and paid our 50% deposit on 7/17/23. We contacted Brendon via email on August 12th, 2023 to unfortunately notify him of our need to cancel the event due to the unforeseen personal issues and to request our partial refund of the deposit, to which we are entitled per the contract. He did not reply. We reached out again by email on August 20th (no reply), by text August 24th (no reply), and on August 25th, to which we finally received a reply from Brendon acknowledging that we are entitled to a partial refund. However, for the past 3 months Brendon has given us little to no updates on when we will receive our partial refund despite us reaching out to him frequently. He said that there is no “timeline” that he has to follow for our refund. Overall, it is our experience that Brendon does not reply to communications that don't serve him and the restaurant group with financial resources. When we were going through the initial contract and deposit process, he always replied promptly. However, since we notified him of our need to cancel and asked for our refund, he has ignored us or been extremely slow to answer. It also should be noted that Brendon’s other restaurant, Velleggia's, closed this summer and The Baltimore Banner and Baltimore Business Journal have alluded to unpaid rent, unpaid laborers, and disgruntled and underpaid employees. It is our advice not to work with Brendon or this restaurant group in any capacity.